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   Tim Verstynen (tdverstynen@neuromatch.social)'s status on Sunday, 05-Nov-2023 00:45:19 JST Tim Verstynen

   I am sick of this genre of “we must correct the liberal bias in academia” opinion pieces.

   https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/04/opinion/liberal-universities-republicans.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

   So I’m supposed to teach that climate change isn’t happening or isn’t being caused by human activity despite the overwhelming evidence that it is happening and we are responsible?

   I’m supposed to teach that homosexual behavior is abnormal and unnatural, despite it being observed across many species (including other primates) and having a well documented prevalence in human history?

   I’m supposed to teach that Reaganomics allows for uplifting everyone despite the overwhelming evidence that it only increases income inequality?

   I’m supposed to teach that our history of systemic racism either did not exist or does not persist in causing social harm to this day, despite the overwhelming evidence for the generational impacts of practices like redlining and race biases in healthcare and the criminal justice system?

   I’m supposed to teach that Trump won the 2020 election and was disenfranchised because of some deep state plot, despite the complete lack of evidence (and the counter evidence that he and his supporters knew they lost the election)?

   Maybe the reason that conservative positions do not get traction in academia (and gets consistently flagged by fact-checking services) isn’t some nefarious conspiracy to suppress conservative voices. Maybe it’s just because most of what counts as conservative ideologies today are premised on non-empirical assumptions or flat out lies.

   • GreenSkyOverMe (Monika) repeated this.
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     Francis ☑️ (wtfrank@mastodon.social)'s status on Sunday, 05-Nov-2023 00:48:12 JST Francis ☑️

     in reply to

     @tdverstynen Yes your last paragraph captures it I think - if people who specialise in understanding subjects often end up with a so-called liberal bias, then maybe reality has a liberal bias no matter how much culture warriors want to fight that.
     Or, perhaps the people who end up doing research and teaching others are more likely to be altruistic. If altruism predisposes you towards certain beliefs and a willingness to teach them... culture warriors maybe ought to develop their own altriusm...